Council: Shaping the Year's Agenda

At its first meeting of the new academic year, with Will Harris reelected
as moderator and Mark Lloyd reappointed as parliamentarian, Council focused
on adding specifity to the charges of its standing committees. The charges
(to be published shortly) are expected to reflect Council speakers' interests
in such topics as safety, pluralism, and the assessment of the new Alcohol
Policy.

Some highlights of the information reports that open Council each month:

President Rodin said last year's Council recommendations led to policy
formation in areas such as closed circuit television monitoring and the
campus charitable giving campaign. She also noted that the Freshmen Convocation
had the largest faculty turnout since she has been in office.

Provost Barchi spoke of new educational efforts and social options that
are being implemented in connection with the new Alcohol Policy. He also
mentioned a 13% increase in research grants to Penn and the need to assess
research expenditures in collaboration with the faculty.

Steering Committee Chair John Keene--who was to have been past chair
but is still in office since Senate's intended 1999-00 chair, Dr. Peter
Conn was tapped for Deputy Provost-applauded the selection of Dr. Conn for
the new post and announced that he and the chair-elect, Dr. Larry Gross,
will split the vacancy, with Dr. Gross taking the chair of Senate and of
Steering in January.

GAPSA's vice chair Kendra Nicholson, expressed the group's support of
the new Alcohol Policy, and announced that a new web site has been created
in line with GAPSA's goal of building a stronger sense of graduate student
community.

UA's Chair,Michael Silver reeled off a long list of plans--among them
a proposal for e-mail stations, and a forum to discuss parental notification
of alcohol and other abuses in the light of changes in the Buckley Amendment
(in this issue).
Activities plans promoted by UA include the recent Politically Incorrect
Show as part of the "There's No Place Like Penn" weekend;
the upcoming one is a festival in Clark Park (here),
and a proposed concert for all Philadelphia colleges in Fairmount Park.

UMC Chair Chaz Howard described the joint efforts with the UA to include
minority students on the UA committees; the UA has named as liaison for
the UMC collaboration Michael Krouse.

PPSA Chair Terri White reported on a summer retreat in the summer to
address the PPSA bylaws, which lacked a provision for a vacancy at chair-elect.
Ms. White is continuing in office since her intended successor is on maternity
leave. She also said PPSA now plans to present two plenary sessions each
year. The first for this year is on October 20 in Logan Hall, and the second
will be announced for the spring term.